Wrangling over ancient ways

The scene is steeped in the tradition of another time, and so is the route they take to get there.

Rogers Path, one of many unpaved “ancient ways’’ that wind through the Vineyard’s woodsy interior, was used by generations of islanders to travel on foot or by cart between island settlements. A court decision last month, issued after a challenge by neighbors set off years of legal wrangling, ensures that the public may continue to use it.

Proponents said the ruling sets an important precedent, at a time of increased conflict between users of the old cart paths and residents who have built new homes beside them.

“Now that the Vineyard is more developed, and there are more houses along the edges of these paths, there are more objections,’’ said James Lengyel, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission. “The principle at stake was, do the public rights endure, even if a contemporary neighbor doesn’t like it, and the answer is, the rights endure.’’

Before white settlers landed in the 1600s, Martha’s Vineyard was home to native Wampanoags, who may have first established some of the oldest pathways still in use on the island. The Vineyard remained sparsely populated for centuries, its paths untouched by development, but dramatic growth began in the 1970s. From 1975 to 2000, the population doubled to nearly 15,000 people, according to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

As modern subdivisions increasingly overlapped with the old byways, tensions sometimes flared. Exasperated by the potholes caused by increased traffic and heavy construction vehicles, residents of Tea Lane, a 250-year-old dirt road in Chilmark named for the contraband tea hidden there during the Revolutionary War, demanded that it be paved.

In Edgartown, town officials sought a restraining order against a property owner on Middle Line Path to stop him from cutting down trees. Conservation leaders, meanwhile, sought to grant some paths special protection.

The disagreement in West Tisbury began almost a decade ago, in 2001, when town officials entered into an agreement with the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank to manage and maintain Rogers Path, a mile-long dirt lane that runs from State Road, past the North Tisbury Cemetery, to South Indian Hill Road.

Tempers flared when landscapers showed up to cut brush on the path where it passes by a group of homes; one homeowner called police to complain about trespassing on his property, and soon after, in 2002, a group of neighbors sued to determine the path’s ownership.

Dan Larkosh, one of the lawyers who represented the neighbors, said they never intended to block the general public from using the path, and that their concern centered on the northern segment that branches past their homes, not the part at the southern end used to access the cemetery.

“My clients never really had a problem with anyone who wanted to walk on the path, but they did have a problem with the town contracting with another party to come on their property and do maintenance,’’ he said.

But to residents who walk, bike, and ride horses on the path, the neighbors’ fight against its maintenance felt like an affront to public access. Nancy Dole, who lives nearby and walks her dog there daily, said she treasures the quiet she finds beneath the beech and holly trees.

“Roads go away if you don’t maintain them; they disappear into brush,’’ she said. “Someday no one can walk down them, and that would be a shame. . . . Every time you lose one of these places, you lose so much. And there’s so much to gain by letting people enjoy it.’’

In response to the lawsuit, West Tisbury selectmen sought to prove the path’s long, continuous public use, for access to the cemetery and beyond it, as a route between the villages of Middletown and Christiantown. Longtime islanders testified about their use of the path, convincing a judge that “the public has the right to use the entire length and width.’’

“Significantly, there is no indication in any of the evidence presented that any individual who used Rogers Path over the years sought permission from the landowners, but rather, the town’s witnesses indicated that the use was in the nature of a public right,’’ Superior Court Judge C. Brian McDonald wrote in his decision.

The neighbors have not decided whether they will appeal the decision, said Larkosh, their lawyer. He said the town might have proved that the stretch of road to the cemetery was used continuously, “but there wasn’t any evidence this offshoot [past their homes] was ever used for that purpose.’’

Proving the public’s right to an ancient way is difficult, said Ronald Rappaport, town counsel for West Tisbury, and the town’s success should be a lasting obstacle to future challenges.

“It’s important as a stake in the ground, saying there are public rights here, and let’s not let people block them off,’’ he said.